I have a few personal rules about dollar stores. While some things are worth picking up at the local dollar emporium – stickers, crafty things for kids, party junk, any other kind of junk – I have typically stayed the hell away from 1) anything that involves electricity, and 2) unless it’s a guaranteed brand […]

God bless giant multinational corporations. With Kraft’s 2010 acquisition of beloved British confectionary mainstay Cadbury, which subsequently found itself under the Mondelez International brand, both the Dairy Milk family of chocolate bars and the Chips Ahoy! brand of supermarket cookies fell under the control of the same company. Some blessed soul (who, I’d hope, got […]

I’ve seen many chocolate and coffee pairings in my time, from chocolate-covered espresso beans to chocolate bars with coffee grounds mixed in. Chocolate is a common flavouring in many espresso-spiked drinks produced by Starbucks, from the chilly mocha Frappuccino to the garden variety hot mocha. But chocolate and tea? About the closest I’ve seen is […]

Like most humans, I like shiny things. While diamond-encrusted teeth and flashy gold chains don’t do anything for me, a pretty, shiny package in the grocery store – especially for a product I’ve never seen before – draws me in like the stupid ape-man I clearly am. No amount of formal education or summer afternoons […]

As previously noted on NEAROF!, I don’t mind Aero. It’s a plain sort of chocolate bar that mixes things up by adding air bubbles instead of raisins or nuts. The Aero Peppermint bar has always seemed a curious extension to the line, though it’s also kind of ingenious. It introduces a new flavour without changing […]

Coconut is all the rage these days. Coconut water has spread far and wide from niche grocery markets catering to tropical tastes, Starbucks has brought their mocha-coconut Frappuccino from Hawaii to the wilds of Canada, and even chocolaty treats like M&Ms are getting in on the coconut action. (I tried some. They were good.) And […]

I work strange hours at an office in the middle of downtown Edmonton, where the streets empty and restaurants close en masse outside of the Monday to Friday workday hustle. As a result, the closest thing to a quick supper I can find at 9:30 on Sunday night is often a Snickers bar from the […]

In case you hadn’t noticed, I kind of like the combination of orange and chocolate flavours. I also love British candy, a vice that has been cheerfully fed by a new U.K. specialty import shop in Edmonton, just south of Whyte Ave. My latest find isn’t entirely new to me. I got a Fry’s Orange […]

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